Going Paperless with DocuWare

Being a contract manufacturer that caters to the medical and aerospace industries, we are mandated that our manufacturing documentation be preserved due to regulations by the likes of the FDA and the Federal Government.

The Problem

What began as a few storage boxes soon turned into a space consuming nightmare which took over our conference room, inventory area, storage room and most of our office ladies room!

After reaching the point of no more space it was decided that a change in thinking was not only needed, it was NECESSARY.  We hired a fantastic consultant named Amy Melaragno of AM Optimize, who guided us through the detailed process of researching our needs and vetting companies that offered solutions for our situation.  The journey to find an answer translated into many meetings over many months which then turned into the DocuWare software solution through ComDoc.

The Solution

During brainstorming sessions with ComDoc we began to hammer out the way information would be fed into the software along with coordinating with our IT provider to order and install a robust designated file server for all the information to live. Once preparations were complete and the basics were set up by ComDoc, group controlled test scanning was done to proof out the software and confirm the accuracy of data.  After confirmation of testing was complete, our designated scanning person began the large task of entering many years’ worth of historical manufacturing process documentation along with simultaneous scanning of current information.

For our needs, in the simplest sense, DocuWare has become our electronic filing cabinet.  Now, two scanning years later, we have not only cleared the conference room, storage room and the ladies room of the historical documentation, we have also built additional drawers that are now home to our Quality Management System, Master Inspection Prints, Preventative Maintenance, Human Resources and Training documentation.

Retrieval of information from the database via DocuWare is very simple and user friendly which facilitates complete transparency during audits as well as helping with in-house training of employees.

So what does the future hold with so much accomplished? Our next paperless goal is streamlining our AR/AP processes and cutting the front office paper storage even more.